Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/246577
BARRELS Frizzell owns his own mill, he has more options for the wood, but he admits the timber market is only just starting to rebound from the recession. Cooperage wood accounts for just about 5% of the total market for white oak. But during the height of the recession, when the construction market collapsed, Frizzell said it was the stave business that kept him and other loggers afloat. Most of the loggers in the area work in small operations of just two to three men who are often part of the same family. When logging private land, Frizzell said he would typically split the proceeds of a timber sale 50-50 with the landowner. He mentions that he's been working with one property owner with several hundred acres of land who will cut enough oak each year to pay the property taxes. One of the biggest challenges for loggers is accessing the trees and coping with the weather. Much of the timber forest in Missouri and other parts of mid-America is remote with little infrastructure. Heavy rains can make it impossible for crews to get into the forest and harvest oak trees. Forest access is actually a bigger constraint on the supply of quality oak than the size of the forests. Because it's often not possible for loggers just to cull out white oak trees, they need to wait for landowners to decide to cut swaths of timberland for all the lumber. To overcome the terrain and conditions, loggers use large, heavy-duty tractors known as skidders to drag wood out of the forest, clear a path to the trees or winch logs up hills. Buying and milling the wood Large tractors known as 'skidders' are used to haul cut trees out of the forest. ISC doesn't own any forests but instead relies on 16 log buyers scattered throughout Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee to source logs for barrel staves. Most of that wood is destined to become barrels for the spirits industry. Logs are evaluated by buyers looking for any defects and must contain at least 70% wood suitable for staves. Wood for wine barrel staves mainly comes from the Ozarks region of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. The company currently operates three stave mills in the Missouri cities of Salem and New Florence as well as Salem, Ind. It will open a fourth stave mill in Morehead, Ky., by the end of 2014. ISC's staves for wine ICONE RANGE For more information call 707.252.3408 or visit us at iconebarrel.com Win es & Vin es F EB RUA RY 20 14 35